Saturday, 1 June, 2002, 12:35 GMT 13:35 UK

Cronje killed in plane crash
Former South Africa cricket captain Hansie Cronje has been killed in a plane crash in the country's Western Cape province.

The plane, carrying three passengers, crashed outside the city of George, about 500 kilometres east of Cape Town.

"We have heard the news, we are still trying to recover. It's a shock." said sports ministry spokesman Graham Abrahams.

"He (Cronje) was killed. We can confirm that."

Cronje's brother, Frans, said the plane crashed in bad weather.

"It was raining and they crashed into the side of a mountain," he said.

Relatives of the 32-year-old said the plane left Johannesburg for George early Saturday morning but was unable to land due to poor weather conditions and crashed at about 0500 GMT (0600 BST).
It appears the pilot tried to circle before landing but crashed in the rugged Outeniqua mountains.

The South African Press Association quoted doctors at the crash site as saying the two others on board the plane had also died. Their identities were not immediately known.

Cronje tributes pour in

Officials from the United Cricket Board of South Africa spoke of their great sadness at Cronje's death.

UCB president, Percy Sonn, said: "Hansie was an excellent cricketer and a very popular and successful captain, who led his team to some great achievements.

"He gave much to cricket in this country during his career."


Cronje was banned for life from the game by the United Cricket Board of South Africa in 2000.

The decision was later endorsed by the game's governing body, the International Cricket Council, after he admitted to taking money to fix matches involving South Africa.

Cronje sparked the matchfixing scandal after Indian officials said they had tape recordings of him talking with an Indian bookmaker during the team's tour of the subcontinent.

Several teammates later told a government commission that Cronje conveyed to them an offer in 1996 of up to $350,000 (£180,000) to lose a one-day game against India.

Cronje denied that, but admitted receiving $100,000 (£68,000) from gamblers in exchange for match information and conveying other offers from gamblers to teammates to perform badly.

But his priest, Pastor Ray McCauley, reflected the other side of his character after hearing the news of his death.

"He was a person with a huge, big heart and whenever I rang him he would go with me to orphanages and schools," he said.

"Once the match-fixing broke and he was not allowed to play cricket again, he took it on the chin and never complained about it."


---------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, he may have done bad in the bribery affair, but it is certainly still a most unfortunate tragedy. He will be missed by many. R.I.P. :(

This thread might stand a better chance of being noticed in the OT forum, instead of drowning in the soccer stuff here, and various people might be moved to comment on it...

Here is a more detailed obituary from CricInfo:

Hansie Cronje's tragic fall from grace

Peter Robinson - 1 June 2002

Hansie Cronje's tragic death in an air crash near George in South Africa's southern Cape on Saturday has ended one of the saddest episodes in South African sport. With the world apparently at his feet, Cronje allowed himself to be seduced by the millions of dollars involved in illegal betting in cricket and was finally drummed out of the game in disgrace.

Even those closest to Cronje could offer no explanation for his behaviour, beyond his own admission that he had "an unfortunate love for money". From being one of the most respected figures in the game he became an outcast and his shocking death came before he and the cricket establishment were able to effect some sort of rapprochement.

Before his fall from grace, Cronje had been South Africa's longest-serving and most successful captain, leading his country at two World Cups and, immediately before the match-fixing scandal broke, to a rare Test series victory over India.

He was groomed for greatness at Bloemfontein's Grey College, the alma mater of his predecessor as South African captain, Kepler Wessels. He played provincial schools cricket for Free State from 1985-87 and for the South African Schools team, along with Jonty Rhodes, in 1986 and 1987, captaining the side in his final year.

Cronje made his provincial debut for Free State in the 1987/88 season, and within three seasons had begun captaining the side. When South Africa re-emerged from isolation with a three-game one-day international tour of India in 1991, Cronje travelled with the team as a non-playing member, and just months later he was selected for South Africa's first World Cup campaign in Australia and New Zealand.

He made his Test debut against the West Indies in 1992 and scored his maiden Test century against India in Port Elizabeth later that year. His 135 was to be his highest Test score, although he was to score another five centuries in a career that encompassed 68 Test matches.

Cronje took over as South African captain from Wessels after a disastrous one-day campaign in Pakistan in 1994, during which South Africa lost six games on the trot to Pakistan and Australia. His first Test as captain ended in a surprise defeat against Ken Rutherford's New Zealanders at the Wanderers, but South Africa came from behind to win the series 2-1, and Cronje had begun to establish himself as a tough, uncompromising captain.

As a batsman, he was one of the world's finest players of spin bowling, making good use of his feet and the slog-sweep to dominate the bowlers, but he was less comfortable against fast bowling directed at his rib cage, a weakness exploited on different occasions by Darren Gough and Danny Morrison.

Even so, Cronje went on to score 3,714 runs at 36.41 and his right-arm medium pace often proved particularly effective on the sub-continent. In all he took 43 Test wickets at 29.95. He was more successful as a one-day player, scoring over 5,500 runs in 188 matches at 38.64.

It was as a captain, however, that Cronje stamped himself on the South African game. With Bob Woolmer as South African coach and Peter Pollock the convener of selectors, Cronje gradually exerted more and more influence over the team. It was this power that eventually led to his downfall.

Shortly after South Africa had returned from India in 2000, Cronje was implicated in match-fixing on the basis of tape recordings made by the Indian police. He denied the charges initially, but after a late-night change of heart faxed a confession to the then United Cricket Board managing director Ali Bacher.

Cronje was immediately sacked as captain and suspended, and after further revelations had come out of the King Commission of Inquiry into Match-Fixing, he was banned from cricket for life.

In essence, Cronje admitted to dealings with bookmakers over a long period, as well as offering money to several of his team-mates to underperform. Two of them, Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams, admitted their involvement and were banned from the game for six months.

During 2001 Cronje attempted to have his ban overturned in the Pretoria High Court, but his application was dismissed. Earlier this year he took up employment near Johannesburg, while continuing to maintain a home on the luxurious Fancourt golf estate in the southern Cape.

Despite Cronje's admissions at the King Commission, suspicions remained that the full story had not been revealed with several questions left unanswered. His tragic death, at the age of just 32, seems to have drawn a curtain on one of South African cricket's most unhappy tales.

He is survived by his wife, Bertha.

i just saw a documentaire about cricket...
to be a good cricket player you have to be a VERY good athlete so its problably a great lose for you

Originally posted by philippe
i just saw a documentaire about cricket...
to be a good cricket player you have to be a VERY good athlete so its problably a great lose for you

Not a great loss for me personally as such, as I am not South African, but from what I have read and observed, it is having an impact over there to say the least, but a loss all the same.
He was a player that I liked, even after the bribery scandal emerged, (which did rock the cricket world), and it is a tragedy that anyone dies young and by accident, particularly when they are trying to get their life back on track.
Ye can get many insights into the human condition by considering the Cronje case, and what drove him to do what he did...
It is a shame that when people consider him, he will be viewed solely for the match fixing affair, and not as a person; he has lost the chance to redeem himself over the course of future years.

Coming on the back of Ben Hollioake's fatal car accident in Perth earlier this year, it has been rather a heavy year in terms of premature deaths of international cricketers.

Until a few years ago cricket was broadcasted on BBC on a regular basis and I started watching it and after a while I understood what the game was all about. Then cricket was broadcasted by some commercial station and I never see it again on tv, such a shame.
I saw Cronje play too a few times, he was really good. Very unfortunate....

Hansie Cronje was a great player, unfortunately he may not be remembered as such. He will be missed.

It appears that his death was an unfortunate accident. The real tragedy was that he chose to involve himself in the murky business of match fixing when the world was at his feet both as a Cricketer and outside Cricket.

The story of Hansie Cronje is ultimately a sad tale but one that he created.

Yep, he did "create" the match-fixing, and suffered a complete ban from all forms of the game as his sentence.

Very sad for his family etc, as I guess now he was just trying to get on with his life post-cricket.